which speedtest to believe (internet)

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friendly_jacek

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AT&T raised the monthly rate (again) and billed me overuse on their DSL. enough is enough. i'm switching to cable tomorrow. i took DSL speedtests to compare with cable tomorrow.

speedtest.net 5.65Mb/s 0.38Mb/s 13ms
dslreports.com 3.35Mb/s 0.02Mb/s 97ms
measurementlab.net 0.8Mb/s 0.36Mb/s 127ms

it's supposed to be 6Mb/s download and 1.5Mb/s upload (IIRC).

why the results are all over the place? ISP cheating on speedtests?
 
Was this while you were on wi-fi or physical network cable? Was anyone else in your house using the internet while you were testing?

Generally, I've found speedtest.net to be fairly accurate though.

You hit overages on a 6 Mbps link? Wow.
smile.gif
Must be doing a ton of video streaming. What is their cap? 200 GB/month?

BTW, cable companies have bandwidth caps as well. I think comcast has 300 GB/month. Not sure about others.
 
How you interpret the results depends on what you're trying to interpret. I think you take the highest one.

The slower servers might be slow for some other reason than AT&T's fault, so you can't blame AT&T for the other server problems, or if someone else on your network happened to use the internet at the same time as you're running yoru speed test.

Because Speedtest goes to 5.65mb, then you know you have the capability to go to 5.65, if the servers were in the same location as the speedtest server, and events occurred exactly the same as that test.


Alternatively, if particular sites that are known to be fast are slow, such as youtube, then you can complain on those grounds that some filter or something is in place for a service you need.

Or, if at a particular time of day every speedtest is slow, then you could complain on those gorunds.
 
Last edited:
testmy.net 3.1mb/s 0.2 mb/s

i'm thinking this is the most realistic. i'm hearing that ISP prioritize the transfers when doing well known tests like speedtest.net. so, that is the best case scenario and not the real life.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete


You hit overages on a 6 Mbps link? Wow.
smile.gif
Must be doing a ton of video streaming. What is their cap? 200 GB/month?

BTW, cable companies have bandwidth caps as well. I think comcast has 300 GB/month. Not sure about others.



AT&T has 150GB cap. Comcast has 250GB cap. Yap, i watch netflix some (currently going through The House of Cards and Jeriho TV shows) and 2 teenagers do their things too.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Generally, I've found speedtest.net to be fairly accurate though.


not sure about that. before 6 mb/s DSL, i had 12mb/s cable and it felt much slower and lots of buffering on netflix. this is why i went to DSL. speedtest never showed a problem and this is why i got suspicious of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Voltmaster
I would not trust speedtest.net for [censored]

Dslreports has new test i do like that one, but best one is testmy.net.


In my case, speedtest.net and dslreports test give nearly identical results. testmy.net shows slightly lower, but not far off either.
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
not sure about that. before 6 mb/s DSL, i had 12mb/s cable and it felt much slower and lots of buffering on netflix.

There are other reasons for netflix buffering even on a fast link. The whole net neutrality thing...
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Voltmaster
I would not trust speedtest.net for [censored]

Dslreports has new test i do like that one, but best one is testmy.net.


In my case, speedtest.net and dslreports test give nearly identical results. testmy.net shows slightly lower, but not far off either.


what ISP do you have? maybe they are honest?
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
AT&T has 150GB cap.

That must be for the basic DSL service. I have their U-verse service, but it is still just glorified slightly higher speed DSL, and my cap is 250GB. I actually can't complain about this link. They deliver the advertized speed and it has been reliable so far. But I know this varies greatly by location.
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Voltmaster
I would not trust speedtest.net for [censored]

Dslreports has new test i do like that one, but best one is testmy.net.


In my case, speedtest.net and dslreports test give nearly identical results. testmy.net shows slightly lower, but not far off either.


what ISP do you have? maybe they are honest?

AT&T.
 
how old is your modem? maybe time for a new one? did someone plug in a home phone without a filter?

Filter plugged in wrong/backward/etc

I had tons of problems with Roadrunner, time warner had an overloaded node in my area and werent telling anyone not even their own line techs.

My friend who works at level 3 support there found out and told me... Problems magically vanished 2 months later when they got around to upgrading/splitting the node.

I'm paying for 50down/5 up

This is the local speedtest server 25miles away
4547747382.png


This is one 500miles away in chicago.
When your internet is working its working.
When its not its a chance its your modem or wiring.. if you rule out those.. its the ISP having issues.
4547750273.png


Testmy.net

Download 42.9
Minimum :: 21.95 Mbps | Middle :: 42.13 Mbps | Maximum :: 52.06 Mbps

Upload 5.4Mbps
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
AT&T has 150GB cap.

That must be for the basic DSL service.


correct. when i switched a couple of years ago (actually don't remember exactly when) i heard bad things about u-verse ping (i was into online gaming then) and opted for the old fashioned DSL. i actually never had a major problem with the internet bandwith since, except for slow uploads, that i only rarely do.
 
update: i repeated the tests around midnight and got more reasonable results:

speedtest.net 5.77Mb/s 0.36Mb/s 12ms
dslreports.com 5.84Mb/s 0.44Mb/s 37ms
measurementlab.net 2.86Mb/s 0.40Mb/s 49ms
testmy.net 4.2Mb/s 0.37Mb/s

the attempt to activate comcast cable internet was unsuccessful today. i need to wait almost a week for their crew to check "pole" connections. they will show up between 8AM and 8PM of course.
 
if its faster at night its probably isp congestion.

it looks like you probably have 384kbit/up 6mb down dsl?

you are getting the rated speed in those midnight tests if so.
 
testmy.net results:
Download :: 34.3 Mbps 4.3 MB/s
70% faster than my host average 20.1 Mbps
9% faster than the BE average 31.4 Mbps
150% faster than Index Speed 13.7 Mbps

Upload :: 4.3 Mbps 538 kB/s
51% faster than my host average 2.8 Mbps
Comparable to the BE average 4.3 Mbps
8% faster than Index Speed 4 Mbps

I'm on the cheapest subscription, so shouldn't complain. The test server was in London, so on the other side of the Channel aswell.

speedtest shows similar:
4549429477.png


I have dsl btw...
 
Originally Posted By: Jetronic

70% faster than my host average 20.1 Mbps


since you're bragging:
mine was also 50% faster than my host average 2.8 Mbps, but 84% slower than my city average 25.6 Mbps.
 
Originally Posted By: Jetronic
not bragging, just putting into context.

What is the index speed they refer to?


just kidding, 18.3 Mbps on the first test, 11.7 Mbps on the repeat test, not sure what it means.
 
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